^°^i9i4^^] Phillips, Birds of the Sudan. 151 



into America in large numbers. Shrikes of two kinds were common 

 and a large blue hawk, Melierax metahates, was very conspicuous. 

 This, the commonest large hawk of the country, is very sluggish 

 and quite tame. Once, riding along a trail we passed one sitting 

 in a low thorn tree, when to our astonishment he came crashing 

 to the ground and lay there completely paralyzed. When we 

 picked him up he offered no resistance and seemed perfectly limp, 

 although he still grasped a freshly killed sparrow in his talons. 

 On dissection we could find nothing diseased about this bird except 

 possibly a small hemorrhage back of the ear. This was the first 

 time we had ever seen a bird struck down from apparently natural 

 causes, but he might have sustained a blow previously. 



The most noticeable small birds around Sennar were Stone-chats, 

 the common Isabelline Wheatear, a migrant, and the Wliite Wag- 

 tail, also a wanderer. 



We have delayed too long around Sennar and must get south- 

 wards, and can only pause to mention a few of the striking birds. 

 The traveller up the Blue-Nile notices a fairly sudden entrance to 

 the more African, or more tropical birds, though the bare scenery 

 of leafless thorn forest is far from tropical in appearance. About 

 El-Mesherat, or a little before, one gets into patches of dense bush 

 near the river, with elephant grass, baobab trees, a few palms and 

 here and there wild fig trees whose glorious foliage of dark green 

 leaves gives the sun smitten traveller a dense shade all through the 

 dry season. Hidden in these trees are the wary green Fruit Pi- 

 geons. Bird life, numerically at least, is remarkable in the bush 

 about here. Dense swarms of plain colored Weaver Finches, 

 mostly of two species and now of course in winter plumage, whirl 

 about with a perfect roar of wings, looking like swarms of bees. 

 No one can imagine the size or density of these flocks, which at 

 first are really startling as they hurtle over one's head. We thought 

 that one well directed shot would often kill a hundred. Imagine 

 the feelings of an Arab when one of these flocks takes possession of 

 his durrah patch, for it spells ruin in a short time. The children 

 are all put to work with strings and movable scarecrows to frighten 

 birds away, and they are kept busy all day long. The hanging 

 nests of weaver finches are a conspicuous feature of the Sudan 

 landscape, and sometimes a small thorn tree will hold twenty or 

 thirty of them. 



